origin

The University of Tsukuba, Japan is the star of the 2011 Campus Exhibition. This institution of higher education has long been associated with the festival, and numerous works developed there or created by its alumni have been showcased at Ars Electronica.

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This school of art and design infused by the pioneering spirit has produced such illustrious media artists as Toshio Iwai (JP) and Maywa Denki (JP). Its history goes back over 30 years, and closely parallels Japan’s rise to preeminence as a technological nation. Plastic arts and mixed media, areas of artistic work and research taken completely for granted today, were opened up at Tsukuba through the establishment of corresponding courses of study. By combining competence in design and engineering, the University of Tsukuba has made a major contribution to the development and propagation of interactive technologies. Since 1996, Hiroo Iwata (JP) has been working in Tsukuba on using digital interface devices as means of artistic expression.

The title of the Linz exhibition refers to a mental attitude that is at the basis of the research work and teaching done at this academic institution, activities that oscillate between playfulness on one hand, and serious consistency on the other. Inherent in many of the works that have come out of this university is a deep-seated confrontation with playfulness. Conversely, engineering work, a pursuit purported to be highly technical and dry as dust, often results in things that are fun to use.

In contrast to Campus exhibitions in previous years, Seriously Playful / Playfully Serious features not only works by undergrads but by faculty members and alumni as well. A chronicle composed of images and videos documents the special approaches and practices that characterize work done at the University of Tsukuba and its contributions to Ars Electronica.

First of all, the numerous works presented in Linz offer an incisive look at what’s currently going on at the institute of art and design; they also insightfully consider the results of an artistic approach to the development of technology and the collaboration among engineers and designers.

Talks / Presentations / Performances

Campus Tsukuba Forum

So/Su 4. 9. 15:00 – 17:00
Ars Electronica Center, Seminar Room
Participants: Hiroo Iwata (JP), Takuro Osaka (JP), Novmichi Tosa
(Maywa Denki) (JP), Tomoe Moriyama (JP)

Campus Tsukuba Students‘ Talk

Mo/Mon 5. 9. 14:00 – 16:00
Kunstuniversität Linz

Spherical Origami Performance

Fr/Fri 2. 9. 15:00 – 15:30
Kunstuniversität Linz
Jun Mitani (JP)

Otamatone Performance

Fr/Fri 2. 9. 17:00 – 17:20
Sa/Sat 3. 9. 17:00 – 17:20
Kunstuniversität Linz
Novmichi Tosa (Maywa Denki) (JP)

PLX Performance

Sa/Sat 3. 9. 15:00 – 15:30
Kunstuniversität Linz
Ryota Kuwakubo (JP)

Robot Mask Demo

Fr/Fri 2. 9. – Di/Tue 6. 9. täglich/daily 11:00 – 12:00
Kunstuniversität Linz
Kenji Suzuki (JP), Dushyantha Jayatilake (LK), Anna Gruebler (VE)

Arbeiten / Works

Air Tiles

Kazuki Iida (JP), Junki Ikeuchi (JP), Toshiaki Uchiyama (JP), Kenji Suzuki (JP)

Arabesque

Marin Takahama (JP)

beacon

Takahiro Kamatani (JP), Miho Kyoya (JP), Toshiaki Uchiyama (JP), Kenji
Suzuki (JP)

Carnival

Masashige Iida (JP))

COLOLO

Makiko Hoshikawa (JP), Fumitoshi Ogaki (JP), Toshiaki Uchiyama (JP),
Kenji Suzuki (JP)

Connect

Nao Kozono (JP)

daruman

Mari Matsumoto (JP), Fumitoshi Ogaki (JP), Kouki Hayafuchi (JP),
Shinya Shimizu (JP), Kenji Suzuki (JP), Toshiaki Uchiyama (JP)

Feel Through

Hiroaki Yano (JP), Hiroo Iwata (JP)

make-up

Yuko Asai (JP)

Marbling Painting on a Sphere of Water – Space Art Experiment at ISSInternational Space Station

Takuro Osaka (JP)

Minstrel

Hiroko Haraguchi (JP)

Otamatone

Maywa Denki (JP)

PLX – parallax of the game

Ryota Kuwakubo (JP)

Robot Mask

Dushyantha Jayatilake(LK), Anna Gruebler(VE), Kenji Suzuki(JP)

Secrets

Sakamoto Nodoka (JP)

Shadows

Junya Kataoka (JP)

Spherical Origami

Jun Mitani (JP)

Spiral Top – Space Art Experiment at ISS-International Space Station

Takuro Osaka (JP)

Talk Torque-2

Hideaki Kuzuoka (JP), Hiroshi Kasai (JP), Ikkaku Kawaguchi (JP),
Toshimasa Yamanaka (JP)

The Forest

Ikumi Aihara (JP)

Tsukuba Scope

Fumiaki Murakami (JP)

Twilight

Junya Kataoka (JP)

The Crocodilian Moves Occasionally Before We Know

Yuki Tabuchi (JP)

Torus Treadmill

Hiroo Iwata (JP)